Position Table

Library Faculty Retreat Summary December 2010

Library Faculty Retreat Summary December 2010

1. Faculty/Staff hiring

a. CONTEXT: EC will be considering potential hires for Faculty and APs in Spring and Summer of 2011, and will need to choose between multiple proposals. EC will not be able to fill all vacated positions.

b. QUESTION: When choosing between position requests, what factors should be considered to build for current and future needs of the library?

SUMMARY:

1. Be flexible in hiring and reassignment

a. Focus not on the impact of not filling the positions, but on what the position will allow, what impact it will have on the Library and campus.

b. Consider needs and impact of position on whole library

c. Hire for excellence within a range of needed areas of specialization. Have more open ended job descriptions (e.g. subject expertise in one of multiple areas instead of being overly specific)

d. Create opportunities for flexible work assignments for current faculty

2. Data-driven decision-making

a. Number of faculty and students in a department should be considered when deciding how to fill a subject specialist position (i.e., as a full time position, part of a broader array of duties, our outsourced).

b. Projected need and current demand for on campus vs. services at a distance should be considered when deciding whether to outsource responsibilities.

3. Training and skill sets

a. Inventory current needs and skills

b. What are the baseline skills needed for faculty positions? Staff and APS? Develop core list.

c. Provide more training towards these identified skills

4. Investigate

a. Joint appointments with colleges (e.g., Grad College and the Library)

b. Collaboration with other institutions

c. When to outsource, and when NOT to outsource (see 2b for considerations)

d. Combine, reconfigure and consider cross-cutting appointments

e. Mentor new people. New hires should spend first 1-2 weeks touring, meeting people and learning about the organization. Unique chance to imprint on the capital-"L" Library.

f. Faculty vs AP - There is a sense that this is not always well-delineated in practice

i. Make sure that faculty positions have an inherent research agenda

ii. Make sure faculty have opportunities to collaborate internally and with other campus units

h. Hire for excellence and ability to flex and grow. This is more important than specific qualifications that may not be as important in the long term.

i. Recruit from GSLIS and other excellent programs, make sure job postings are getting posted widely (they are not always going to diversity lists, why not ALA placement?)

j. More transparency/sharing of how hiring priorities were set and what the informing principles are. What are the benchmarks to consider when creating a new position description?

2. Allocation and management of collections

a. CONTEXT: In the Spring of 2011, the library will need to identify collections spending for the library IT fee, CDC High Impact purchasing program, and also consider collections issues related to space management and reduced spending power.

b. QUESTION: What criteria should be used in prioritizing and aligning resource allocation across these areas?

SUMMARY:

We need to prioritize the areas of concentration (multiple versions of this idea in the summary). Define our role/focus as a research library relative to our partners. Incorporate results of the doctoral program review into collection allocations (for example).

We need to focus more on discovery tools so that users can find our collections, including archival materials, such as through federated searches. Connect collections to user services (reference, instruction, etc.)

We need solid data about use patterns (and user needs) upon which to base our collection decisions and to place them in context. We tend to work on historical precedent and not actual data.

Reconsider how we do package deals.

Some funding for experimental/next-generation collection ideas

3. Developing proposals for the Library/IT fee

a. CONTEXT: In the Spring of 2011 the library will need to develop a prioritized list of requests for the library IT fee that must directly impact student services.

b. QUESTION: What criteria should be used to compare, evaluate, and prioritize requests to match this funding to our other operational and strategic investments?

SUMMARY:

There were several specific ideas for funding requests that came up in groups. These centered around three areas: improving access to collections (specifically, next generation search systems), improvement/increased of instructional spaces, and increased involvement in undergraduate research programs.

Fund transformative and high impact initiatives, with benefits across multiple libraries

Other comments focused on the process for requests:

Establish timeline and procedures for requests

Consult with students as we put requests together

Use the data and evidence that we have to support proposals; specifically, data on student needs and use of library resources

Assess impacts of previous requests

4. Allocating operational resources

a. CONTEXT: In the next 6 months, the Budget Group will be deciding on allocations of SA, GA and Academic hourly wage budgets for the summer and upcoming academic year budgets.

b. QUESTION: What guiding principles should be used in allocating this funding, including priorities for the services, operational functions, and current and future programming this funding should support?